How to keep your English going and have fun by idiomestarradellas

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Month: November 2015

For some time now, I’ve been trying to get inspired, but whenever I think I’ve come upon an exciting or at least mildly interesting idea for our language blog, I google it and find at least 1.0000000000 similar entries (approximate estimation). It’s a turnoff.

There’s no doubt : we are all caught in a matrix, a spiderweb interconnecting our minds, and same ideas seem to be flowing around eternally, no matter the topic, our geographical location, our cultural background or even the age we are living in. We are defined by our human condition.

Nothing new. It’s just that this fact has been blatantly shoved into my face time and again. Unfortunately, neither this feeling of despair is unique.

Anyway, when I googled “phrasal verbs in comics”, I was faced with numerous funny images and , surprisingly, they triggered my inspiration, or was it nostalgia? No matter what it was, I’m starting off this blog`post, without checking out if anything similar has been written. I’ll leave that investigation to you!

Let’s start.

I still remember telling my students to write letters to a pen friend in a foreign country. At that time i.e.century, mostly snail mail was used, as Internet connections were costly, and teachers had to do lots of work before connecting students with their peers in The States or Britain, which were usually our first options. If one out of twenty students kept writing for at least one school year, we thought it was worthwhile. Yes, we were young and enthusiastic.Nostalgia again!

Nowadays, keeping in touch is much easier. Teenagers travel more and connect faster and easier with people from other parts of the world. They don’t need a ball pen and, sadly, many don’t even learn how to hold one properly…

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…not to mention that they don’t even bother to write (type), but just send a selfie and their geo-position marked on a map. However, I still keep telling my teenage students TO WRITE emails to their friends abroad in order to practice their English.

Mind you, how do you say PEN PAL nowadays? Does this concept exist anymore?

Next:

Yes, it used to cheer many generations up. And now? Does downloading a song have the same effect? For me it doesn’t, but then, I was young in the last century. Millennials, you are missing out on holding the OBJECT, a RECORD in your hands, having to take care it doesn’t get scratched when your younger brother learns how to work a RECORD PLAYER and having to save up for the new record of your favourite band. For those of you who are to young to remember – a record player:

And the last nostalgic image:

Yes, today even though a child can’t talk or walk or read, they will already be holding and smart phone or tablet, staring at pictures. Judging by the look on this toddler’s face, he might be “reading” the news Lucy’s talking about!

There it is, a post inspired by nostalgia. It was fun looking back. As long as I don’t check out what others have written on this topic, I’ll be fine. Thank you Peanuts for the memories.